Aunt pleads guilty in deaths of 2 children from Dayton found in car trunk near Baltimore

The bodies of siblings Joshlyn Marie James Johnson, 7, and Larry Darnell O’Neil III, 5, were found July 28, 2021, during a routine traffic stop in Essex, Maryland, about eight miles outside Baltimore.

They were decomposing in the trunk of a car driven by their aunt. Both of their deaths were ruled homicides by unspecified means, said Baltimore County Deputy State’s Attorney Lisa Fox Dever.

Johnson had been caring for the children since 2019 after their mother, Dachelle Johnson, moved to Maryland from Dayton. Dachelle Johnson told detectives she tried to get in touch with her sister many times but could not find her. In March 2021, she made arrangements to meet her sister to get her children, but they never showed and she had not been able to contact them since, she said. A detective notified her of their deaths, The Baltimore Sun reported.

During an interview with a homicide detective, Nicole Johnson said that in May 2020 she became angry with Joshlyn and hit her several times, causing the girl to hit her head at an area Regal Inn. Johnson then put Joshlyn’s body in a suitcase in her car trunk, according to the court documents.

Johnson also told detectives that two months before the children’s bodies were found Larry told her he was tired and lay down to sleep but never woke up. Johnson said the boy had a wound on his left leg but she did not say what caused the injury. She placed his body in a tote in the car trunk next to his sister’s decomposing body, documents stated.

The traffic stop happened one week before Larry’s sixth birthday.

Johnson was pulled over shortly after 11 p.m. July 28, 2021, after police in Essex said she had been speeding. The officer said Johnson had fake temporary tags and registration and was driving without a license. When the officer issued the traffic citations and said the car would have to be towed, Johnson said: “It don’t matter, I won’t be here in five days” and “ya’ll going to see me on the news making my big debut,” according to the charging documents.

As Johnson removed items from the trunk before it could be towed, the officer noticed the smell of decomposition. The officer asked to see inside bags from the trunk, including a suitcase that Johnson attempted to hide using a blanket before removing it and exposing the body inside. Johnson tried to run but was caught. Homicide detectives were called and found the second child’s body inside a plastic tote, documents stated.

Baltimore County schools said the children were never students there. The children were not reported missing, there was no apparent formal custody agreement between the sisters, and with the coronavirus pandemic the children may have fallen through the cracks.

Katherine Morris, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Human Services, which includes Child Protective Services, would not confirm whether any investigation had been open against Johnson, citing confidentiality laws, the Sun reported.

Phillips and his wife, Evelyn Philips-Simon, who died in 2018, raised their niece Dachelle Johnson from the time she was 7 at their home in Dayton. She graduated from Dayton Public Schools and she won a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. poetry contest in fourth grade while at Wogaman Prek-9 School, according to Dayton Daily News archives.

Joshlyn and Larry were born while she lived with her aunt and uncle. Phillips said he brought the babies home from the hospital and was deeply involved in their upbringing. The kids called Phillips and his wife papa and nana.

The kids were inseparable, Phillips said. Joshlyn would dote over her little brother, even help change his diapers. Larry was a little troublemaker, the first one to look for when you find a pile of flour on the floor or cookies missing.

“They both were beautiful kids, and very lovable,” he said.

Phillips said he opposed the idea of Dachelle returning to Baltimore because her family there never supported her. But when he talked to her on the phone she said everything was OK.

“She would tell me the kids were all right and they were doing fine,” he said. “But come to find out the kids weren’t with her.”

Dayton Public Schools officials say Joshlyn was a DPS student in 2018-2019 and was withdrawn in 2019.

Montgomery County Children Services officials wouldn’t say whether they had any involvement with the children while they lived in the area.

Nicole Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 28 and remains in the Baltimore County Detention Center.